One day when I was waiting for the bus, a man heard my American accent and started asking me a lot of questions about American politics. He was ranting for about 15-20 minutes about how bad things are in America and what not. It was very interesting to me because this is very different from how I would interact with someone from a different country than me. I wouldn’t normally ask people about the negative parts of their country in this way, as I would be afraid to offend them. Personally, I wasn’t offended, because I understood where he was coming from, but I did find it very different. In New Zealand people are very curious about American issues, which I grew to get used to. You have to be prepared to answer a lot of questions and be patient when listening when hearing their criticism. People are pretty critical of America and can tend to have pretty strong opinions.At first I thought this was a little rude because it is different than how I would go about the interaction. Overtime I understood that it was just curiosity. I do see why people have a hard time understanding what goes on here, as do I. Overall I think this interaction taught me to be more patient with people and allow them to express their opinions. Although it is not what I would do, I can’t expect people to act the same as I do. Additionally, it is very interesting to listen to other people’s perspectives on our country, and it is something I will take back with me.
